essay
Indigenous Yoruba psychiatry
Magic, faith and healing • New York • Published In 1964 • Pages: 84-120
By: Prince, Raymond (Raymond H.).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The author, a research psychiatrist, has applied the anthropological concept of culture to his analysis and description of traditional Yoruba psychotherapy and theories of mental disturbance. In discussing the etiology, symptomatology, diagnosis, and treatment of Yoruba psychopathology, he eschews the claims that Western types of psychological medicine are a sefficacious as its physical medicine in any primitive context. Psychotherapeutic methods and principles are culture bound, inasmuch as each culture determines the form and content of its disease complex. Having done field research among the Yoruba, the author relies heavily both on case histories of native healers' accounts and on his own observations of patient behavior in native treatment centers in order to clarify many of the points made about traditional definitions of psychic disease and its treatment. The author quite lucidly relates supernatural theories of disease to the Yoruba diety complex and ancestor worship, and how failure at spirit propitiation and self purification or expiation will activate disease-bearing sorcery and witchcraft. On social organization and structure of therapy (healer-patient relationship, family and kin religious controls, etc.), the author expounds on the points originally made by Bascom on the medical functions of Ife divination and the Orisa religious cult associations. Although this article is more descriptive than theoretical in purpose, it does suggest that Yoruba psychiatry is functionally dependent on other Yoruba social institutions.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Personality disorders
- Magical and mental therapy
- Congregations
- Shamans and psychotherapists
- Ethnopsychology
- Missions
- Sorcery
- Theory of disease
- Burial practices and funerals
- Sacred objects and places
- Conception
- Prayers and sacrifices
- Mythology
- Avoidance and taboo
- Revelation and divination
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Yoruba
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Western Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Physician
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Gilbert Winer ; 1967
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1961-1962
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1960-1964
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nigeria
- NotesAdditional notes
- Raymond Prince
- Footnotes appearing in text will be found in pp.118-120.
- Includes bibliographical references
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 64016960
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Yoruba (African people)